These are packages that the LaTeX team have declared are ‘required’ of any LaTeX distribution—in the sense that any package writer is entitled to assume the presence of these packages in support of her package.

The set comprises:

• AmsLaTeX, mathematical support from the AMS;
• The babel package for multilingual typesetting;
• Standard LaTeX support for using Cyrillic alphabet fonts;
• The standard LaTeX graphics and colour packages;
• Basic support for using common Adobe Type 1 fonts with LaTeX—the “psnfss”; and
• Basic “LaTeX tools”.

For distribution details, see the individual packages’ catalogue entries.